Monthly Archives: October 2013

Yesterday afternoon I met at the new Dunkin’ Donuts with Shawn Dooley, a Norfolk resident who is running as a Republican for Dan Winslow’s former seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. After telling Shawn about the Medfield State Hospital site’s future being the biggest issue currently pending in town, I then took him to the meeting of the State Hospital Advisory Committee yesterday evening. SHAC was interviewing the consultant they have hired to run a visioning session for town residents to address the future of the MSH site.

Shawn is a former builder and current town clerk and school Committee member in Norfolk. He was also Dan Winslow’s campaign manager. Shawn said he does have two opponents, one from Norfolk and one from Walpole. His website is www.Dooley4Rep.com.

BTW, from my now one visit each to Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks, I give the latter a slight edge on décor, although the small table and chairs right inside the Dunkin’ Donuts door were quite comfortable. I was also pleased not to have trouble exiting the Dunkin’ Donuts onto Rte 27, but it was after 7 PM. We were leaving to go to the Town House, and even at that hour I saw no way to get out onto Rte 109 given the traffic backed up from the light.

Selectman Osler “Pete” Peterson holds regular monthly office hours at The Center on the first Friday of every month from 9:00 to 10:00 AM (his litigation schedule permitting). Residents are welcome to stop by to talk in person about any town matters. Residents can also have coffee and see the Council on Aging in action (a vibrant organization with lots going on). Peterson can be reached via 508-359-9190 or his blog about Medfield matters https://medfield02052.wordpress.com/, where any schedule changes will be posted.

(Medfield, MA): The Medfield Cultural District Committee is pleased to announce the second and final installation of the community art project Visions and Voices in the pocket park between Zebra’s and Starbucks.

During Medfield Day, a chalkboard kiosk was set up in the park for visitors to write their ideas for the park. Medfield photographer Connie Thomson took portraits of visitors which were then printed poster sized. These paper portraits are now temporarily installed along the sidewalk through the park to further capture public interest in this public space. The posters are adhered with a natural wheat paste and the paper will be completely removed within a few weeks; the duration is weather dependent.

Project Coordinator Jean Mineo says, “this project provided a way for people to reflect on their community and share their ideas publicly. Over 150 comments were left on the chalkboards during the two weeks they were in the park.” The portraits are part of the global on-line art project Inside Out, a creation of the artist JR, recipient of the 2011 TED prize.

Medfield Selectmen are appointing a Steering Committee to manage a public planning process over the winter. Anyone interested in participating in planning workshops can contact Jean Mineo at JeanMineo@aol.com or 508-242-9991 for more information.

Visions and Voices is supported in part by donations from Will’s Hardware and Photographs by Connie Thomson.

The State Hospital Advisory Committee’s subcommittee on the visioning process has a robust website and has also created and circulated a survey of residents’ desires with respect to the Medfield State Hospital site.

Alec Stevens says that the subcommittee wants people to answer the survey, and have them sign up on facebook or on the mailing list that is on the website so that the subcommittee can get a good contact list established to keep people informed as to the subcommittee’s progress, which they feel will be especially important as they soon get the word out about their visioning session.

The State Hospital Advisory Committee (SHAC) has been tasked by the Board of Selectmen to look at the town’s possible purchase of the Medfield State Hospital property. As part of that process, the SHAC’s Visioning Subcommittee has created a Reuse Survey to query town residents about their opinions for the Medfield State Hospital site.

From the American Association for Justice, on how we are losing our access to the courts –

Forced arbitration: US Chamber’s license to steal.

Most Americans do not realize they have forfeited their legal rights until it is too late. Buried in the fine print of many contracts – from credit card and nursing home contracts to employee handbooks and online user agreements – are dangerous forced arbitration clauses that eliminate access to justice and replace it with a secretive, corporate tribunal. The American Association for Justice released a new primer – License to Steal: How the U.S. Chamber Forced Arbitration on America, found at http://www.takejusticeback.com/node/241 – detailing how the abusive practice of forced arbitration hurts American small businesses, consumers and employees.

I was asked what the town would do with the Medfield State Hospital site if it would to buy the property, and the following was my response –

The whole dilemma or problem with the current offer by the state to sell the Medfield State Hospital to the town is that the purchase will likely have to happen before the town will have the opportunity to have a fully completed discussion on what to ultimately do with the property. Despite that fact, I personally think the opportunity for the town to control its own destiny by the means of the purchase of the Medfield State Hospital site is just too important for the town to not pursue the purchase.

However, if the town were to purchase the Medfield State Hospital site, then the town will then have to have an energetic discussion on what to do with it. That is a discussion that the town’s State Hospital Advisory Committee (SHAC), that is currently meeting regularly to consider all the many issues related to the MSH and its possible purchase, will have to lead and a discussion that they are already starting to have. The SHAC is currently planning for a town wide visioning meeting at which all residents will be invited to explore all options.

To date the most likely uses at the Medfield State Hospital site have revolved around housing, because the experts say that most businesses and commercial establishments will not want to locate in Medfield, given our distance from major highways. My personal goal would be to target housing of a sort where we currently have unmet needs in town and which would not add a lot of costs to the town budget (which ultimately unfortunately means not too many school children).

I can imagine the town wanting to have

more housing for seniors, housing for empty nesters that does not currently much exist in town (so that they do not leave town),

affordable housing so that we can get to the 10% threshold that would prevent 40B projects from locating anywhere in town, or

replicating the Old Village Square project (27 houses with only one school child, so that when that project is completed the town will receive $600,000 a year in property taxes compared to having less that $50,000 in municipal costs).

Medfield is perfectly located to make its primary business to be the providing housing, but if housing is what we opt to use to increase our tax base, the town needs to make sure that most of any new housing has to be of a type that will not add a lot to the town budget.

The town website has a section on the Medfield State Hospital and the State Hospital Advisory Committee’s website also lists a lot of the details. The 2012 Jones Lang LaSalle report gives a good overview of the likely potential development options that the market would mandate, and repeats the same results about possible ultimate uses that several other studies over the years have concluded, namely that housing is the most likely use.

Osler ”Pete” Peterson

Medfield Selectman

I started this blog to share the interesting and useful information that I saw while doing my job as a Medfield selectman. I thought that my fellow Medfield residents would also find that information interesting and useful as well. This blog is my effort to assist in creating a system to push the information out from the Town House to residents. Let me know if you have any thoughts on how it can be done better.

For information on my other job as an attorney (personal injury, civil litigation, estate planning and administration, and real estate), please feel free to contact me at 617-969-1501 or Osler.Peterson@OslerPeterson.com.

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